


The Library Exploration

by nerdforestgirl



Category: The Big Bang Theory (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-05
Updated: 2017-04-05
Packaged: 2018-10-15 03:32:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10549356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdforestgirl/pseuds/nerdforestgirl
Summary: A young Amy Farrah Fowler goes to the library one day to escape some rain.  She ends up finding a love of reading and a new friend.  Originally posted on tumblr in 2016





	1. Chapter 1

Amy didn’t want to go home while she was still crying. Mother would lock her in the closet if she explained that she had just wanted to talk to that boy when all those girls showed up and started calling her names. Amy didn’t want to talk to the boy because he was handsome. She wanted to talk to him because he was always nice to her and because he was the best in her biology class after her. She thought they could study together some time. She still thought he might have said yes. Even if it was because he was sure to get an A without having to do all of the work.

Wiping her eyes, Amy walked to the park. It might be safe to stay near the playground where people might be a little less inclined to give her a hard time in front of the moms playing with their little kids. It was a trick she learned about a year ago. It wasn’t foolproof, but it worked better than almost anything else she had tried.

That was until she heard the crack of thunder overhead. It was starting to rain, and Amy felt a sob rock through her chest. Now she was going to have to go home. Mother might believe that her flighty daughter took a while to walk home or got distracted by the flowers. She wouldn’t believe that Amy had taken so long to get home in the rain.

That was until Amy saw the library. Her mother didn’t usually let Amy go there unless she was along because she liked to keep a close eye on what Amy read. Still, Amy could make up an excuse about trying to wait out the rain there. Maybe she would even see if there was a phone to call her mother and explain that she had been caught in the rain.

Amy grabbed the handle to the giant door and pulled with all of her weight. It opened and she slipped inside.

“Hello there,” a friendly older woman said as she watched the scrawny eleven year old look around. Other than Amy, the library had been pretty dead all afternoon.

“Hi,” Amy said meekly. She barely managed to look the woman in the eyes.

“Oh, dear. What’s wrong?” the librarian asked. It was clear that the little girl was upset.

“It’s this thing. There’s a boy,” Amy started.

“Boy trouble. I see,” the librarian interrupted. Amy thought about explaining that it wasn’t really boy trouble, but she kind of enjoyed that this woman believed that Amy was the kind of girl to even have boy trouble. She nodded.

“You know what a girl like you needs right now? Jane Austen,” the librarian said as she ushered Amy further into the building. Amy followed along even though she didn’t know exactly what inspired such kindness from this stranger.

“You seem like you could use some Mr. Darcy,” the librarian said as she handed Amy a copy of Pride and Prejudice. Amy flipped through the book. She had heard of it, but her mother hadn’t let her read it.

“I don’t have a library card,” Amy muttered. Mother had a library card that she used to check out the children’s books she allowed Amy to read.

“Oh. That’s easy enough to fix. Come on.” The librarian smiled and started back to the front of the library. She handed Amy a small form that she had to fill out in order to get her very own library card.

“Does my mother need to sign for this?”

“How old are you?”

“Eleven.”

“Write twelve and this will be our secret. You just have to be a little older to get your own card, but I trust you.”

“Thanks,” Amy told her. She did as the woman said and lied about her age. Amy never lied about anything, so she giggled as she wrote “12” on the paper and handed it over. Then she realized that she never called her mother, so she inquired about a phone. The librarian let Amy come around the desk to make her call.

“Mother, I know I’m late, but it started raining, so I ran into the library… No, I know I should have called you immediately… I’m sorry… No. I promise it won’t happen again… Thank you.”

“Here is your new library card, Miss Fowler, and here is your book. It’s due back in two weeks. If you have any questions, I am Miss Peterson,” the librarian told her with a kind smile. “Actually, I am Miss Peterson even if you don’t have any questions,” she added in a joking tone. Amy gave her an appreciative giggle.

“Thank you, Miss Peterson. I have to go wait outside for my mother now,” Amy said with a little wave. Then she put the book in her backpack and walked back to the heavy doors to shove them open.

Amy stood, shivering in the rain, for nearly twenty minutes while Miss Peterson looked on, concerned. She almost made the little girl come back in when her mother finally showed up. She honked impatiently even though Amy was already running to the car. Miss Peterson decided to keep an eye out for that little girl if she were to show up again.


	2. Chapter 2

It didn’t take long before Amy appeared in the library again. When Amy’s mother was angry at her for not coming straight home, she locked Amy in her bedroom for the night without dinner. It didn’t bother Amy at all. She pulled out the book from her bag and started reading. She consumed the story about Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy as if her life depended on it. She stayed up nearly all night reading, but she didn’t care. The story grabbed her in a way that she had never experienced before.

After school, Amy ran right to the library.

“Hello, Miss Fowler,” Miss Peterson greeted Amy.

“Hi, Miss Peterson. I loved the book. Do you have any more?” Amy beamed up at her new librarian friend. In return, Miss Peterson smiled back. It was good to see the girl so happy because of something she did.

“Of course I do. I have a whole building of them. Did you really finish Pride and Prejudice since yesterday?”

“Yes. I got in trouble because, for the first time in my life, I didn’t do my math homework, but yes. I loved it. I wish I had a dad like Mr. Bennet. He stood up for Lizzy when she didn’t want to marry Mr. Collins. I wonder if I had a dad, would he stand up to Mother for me?”

Miss Peterson’s heart broke a little for the girl. She took the book back from Amy and checked it back in.

“Now, Amy, books are magical, but you can’t let them get in the way of your studies. I’d hate for you to get in too much trouble to come visit me anymore.”  
Amy nodded seriously. Of course she didn’t want to get in trouble or get bad grades. Still, she wanted more stories.

“Good. Now, let’s get you another Austen. This one is a favorite of mine,” Miss Peterson commented as she handed Amy a copy of Sense and Sensibility. “Take your time. You have two weeks to read this one too. Now, would you like to join me for a cup of tea or is your mother expecting you home soon?”

“I better go home,” Amy admitted.

“Come back on Saturday. You can bring your mother, and we’ll have some tea.”

“Mother works Saturday afternoons,” Amy explained.

“Okay. You are welcome to join me for some tea. We can talk about books, okay?”

Amy nodded and went on her way. When she got home, she did all of her homework before she started reading. She also went to bed at her normal time. All in all, it took her a few days to finish the second book that she got from the library.

“What are you going to do today?” Mother asked Amy before she left for work.

“Go for a walk. Maybe go to the library,” Amy offered.

“The library? You know I don’t like you reading things I don’t approve of,” Mother reminded her.

“Miss Peterson is the librarian, and she’s been giving me recommendations,” Amy explained.

“Hmm,” Mother said. She pressed her lips together in a way that made Amy nervous. Amy was worried that her mother would either lock her in the closet all day or that she would make her come to work with her. Both options would ruin her day.

“Let me talk to this Miss Peterson. Get your shoes,” Mother commanded.

Amy nodded and she did just as her mother asked. They went to the library together and Amy was scared about her mother banning her from the library altogether. Right after Amy found out what a joy reading could be.

“Ah. Miss Fowler, it’s nice to see you again. I take it that you got home in the rain the other day?” Miss Peterson greeted Amy with a wink. Amy wondered how Miss Peterson knew better than to mention that Amy had come back the next day. It was like she already knew that it might get Amy in trouble.

“Hello. I’m Amy’s mother, and I hear that you’ve been talking to my daughter,” Mother accused.

“She came in the other day to escape the rain and use the phone. We spoke briefly about books,” Miss Peterson explained kindly.

“My daughter is very sensitive, and I need to keep very close tabs on the kinds of materials she is reading.”

“Oh, I know that little girls can be very sensitive. I would never dream of suggesting something more than she could handle. I was thinking about showing her The Little House on the Prairie series,” Miss Peterson assured Amy’s mother.

“So, we’re on the same page?”

“Of course.”

“Okay, Amy. You only look at things that Miss Peterson suggests. Have a good day,” Mother told Amy. Then she kissed her daughter on the top of her head and left Amy in the library.

“You lied to Mother,” Amy said in utter disbelief as soon as she was sure her mother was gone.

“No, I didn’t. I stretched the truth a little, but I said I would only show you things that I believed you can handle, which is true, and I said I was thinking about showing you The Little House on the Prairie series, which is also true. Maybe those are the ones you should read around her. Some of the others can be a secret between us?”

Amy nodded excitedly. She was bouncing on her toes about what other kinds of stories Miss Peterson might show her. She wanted to read more about the rogues who might leave a woman with child out of wedlock like Sense and Sensibility. She handed over the book and followed Miss Peterson into the stacks.

Miss Peterson handed Amy Moby Dick and another by Jane Austen called Persuasion. Amy took them into her hands. Then they went to find the first two books in the Little House series. Amy liked the television series quite a lot, so she was excited to read those as well. With the four books in her arms, they went back to the desk so that Amy could check them out with her trusty library card. Then Miss Peterson poured Amy a cup of tea and gave her a cookie.   
Miss Peterson could tell she had an avid little reader on her hands, and she was going to do whatever she could to nurture that. The pair chatted about the books that Amy had already read and the ones she was about to.


	3. Chapter 3

It turned into a weekly date between Miss Peterson and Amy. The little girl spent so many Saturdays at the library, reading in some nook or talking with her friend Miss Peterson, that all of the other regulars and employees came to know their little mascot. Sometimes they would bring Amy gifts like candy bars or books of her own to keep. As Amy got older, she started helping out the aging Miss Peterson with things like returning the books to their shelves or checking other patrons out.

“What do you think you’ll study in college?” Miss Peterson asked Amy one afternoon when the girl was sixteen. It was nearly time to start applying for college.

“Something biology. I think involving the brain because I was reading this book last week, and the things we don’t know about the brain are amazing. It runs everything in our bodies, and we don’t have any idea about so many parts,” Amy told her.

“Not English or library sciences? I’m so disappointed in you,” Miss Peterson, or Ellen, as Amy often called her these days, teased.

“I love those things too. It’s so hard. I want to know everything,” Amy confessed.

“I was just teasing you. I know you love literature, but biology is your heart. That’s what you should study. How is the Harvard application going?”

Amy cringed. Her mother knew that she wanted to go to Harvard, and she was technically allowing Amy to apply, but she did so under formal protest. Amy knew that her mother wanted her to stay closer to home.

“Not very well. My mother won’t help me with the application, and the people at school who are supposed to help me with it say I won’t get in. I don’t have enough extra curricular activities,” Amy told her with a sigh.

“Show me,” Ellen ordered Amy with her hand outstretched. Amy pulled out the application and handed it over. Ellen looked it over and started making notes on her legal pad next to her on her desk.

“What—?”

“Shush.”

Amy just watched as her friend looked over the application for over an hour and wrote down notes. Amy didn’t question what she was doing at all.

“Now, you make these changes,” Ellen said to Amy firmly. As much as she loved Amy, she could never ask the girl to give up her dreams and stay here. Amy was bound to do great things.

“Thank you,” Amy croaked. No one else had helped even with Amy begging them to. Miss Peterson really was her best friend, so she hugged her and left to her to make the changes that she recommended. Some of it seemed only true technically, like her “volunteer hours” at the library. It didn’t seem fair to count spending time with her best friend and reading as volunteer work. Still, Amy sent off her application and hoped for the best.

When the thin envelope came from the school, Amy couldn’t open it. All of the other schools had sent her thick envelopes filled with forms to be returned. Harvard clearly had sent her a rejection. The only one she had gotten, but the only one that mattered. Amy had wanted to go there more than anywhere. She had only even applied to the other schools because her mother insisted. Amy balled up her fist with the letter, still unopened, and ran out the door to the only person she trusted to make her feel any better: Miss Peterson.

Amy knocked on the door to Miss Peterson’s house. She had only been here once before a few years ago when Miss Peterson had been ill, and Amy brought her some of her mother’s soup. It felt strange. The library was their place, but Amy couldn’t wait until tomorrow to talk to her friend.

“Amy, dear, what are you doing here?” Ellen asked when she saw the girl crying at her doorstep. It so reminded her of the day lo those many years ago when the same girl was crying as she walked into the library.

“I didn’t get in,” Amy sobbed as she held up the envelope.

“Sweetheart, you haven’t even opened this,” Ellen said as she took the letter from Amy and scooped her inside her home. She took her letter opener from her desk to open the letter and read it.

“Okay. Not great news, but you didn’t not get in. You are on the wait list. Let me make a call,” Ellen explained after she read the letter. “I’m going to go make a call. Make yourself at home.”

Amy looked around her friend’s living room, but didn’t sit. She was surprised to see a photo of herself among those hanging on the walls. It was from the holiday party at the library the year before, and Amy was opening her gift from Ellen—a very beautifully bound version of The Canterbury Tales.

After a few minutes, she could hear Ellen speaking from some other room in her house. Amy wondered who she could be calling, and she tried not to listen. That was until she heard her own name.

“That’s right. Fowler. She’s a brilliant girl, and I know she would just thrive there. I know her extracurricular activities are a little thin, but her grades and test scores are impeccable. Could you just give her a good word?”

Amy suddenly wondered if Ellen knew someone at Harvard. Why hadn’t she mentioned it sooner? Maybe Amy could have just gotten in if she had just helped her out before. Amy was actually a little angry when Miss Peterson came back out to the living room.

“You know someone who could have helped me get in?” Amy accused.

“I honestly thought you would have gotten in without any meddling. You should have. You are a genius,” Ellen told her as she put her hand on Amy’s shoulder.  
“But you didn’t want to help me. You don’t even care about me,” Amy snipped. Then she walked out of Miss Peterson’s house. Her friend knew how much she wanted this, and she could have made it happen with a phone call. It wasn’t fair.

Amy ran home. She was decided that she would start filling out the forms for UCLA. There was no reason to move all the way across the country if it would just make her mother angry. In fact, maybe she should find somewhere even closer so she could still live at home.

“Where have you been, young lady? Were you out with boys? You know I don’t like that,” Mother said as soon as Amy walked in the door.

“I went for a walk, Mother. I didn’t get into Harvard, and I was upset about it,” Amy explained. She left out the fight with Ellen because she knew she was just taking out her frustration on her friend. She would go apologize in the morning before school.

“Oh,” Mother said happily. “Well, now that we have that Harvard business behind us, let’s start really talking about where you should go. Are you sure I can’t talk you into a school with stronger morals?”

Amy shook her head. Her mother had been looking at a slew of religious schools, but none of them had particularly strong biology departments. She decided to just go to bed rather than start a new fight with her mother now that Mother had won the old one. The day had been long, and those UCLA forms could wait until the morning.

The next morning, Amy gathered her things to go to school, and left a little early. She walked to the library, fully embarrassed by her behavior the night before. Then when she got to the library, Miss Peterson wasn’t there. It was locked up even though it was supposed to open fifteen minutes earlier.

Amy started worrying that something bad had happened to her friend. She full out ran all the way to her house and pounded on the door. Ellen answered with her bag in her hand.

“Amy, what’s wrong?”

“I thought something terrible happened to you. You weren’t at the library. What if the last thing that I ever said to you was out of anger?”

“Oh, sweetheart, you are being a bit melodramatic, aren’t you? I know I’m getting on in years, but other than when my arthritis is acting up, I’m perfectly healthy. And I know you didn’t mean it when you accused me of not having your best interests at heart. You are an exceptionally bright teenager, but you are still a teenager. You say things you don’t mean. Come on. I’ll give you a ride to school,” Ellen offered.

Amy nodded and followed. “I’m sorry about last night.”

“I know, and I could have called my contact at Harvard earlier. You weren’t wrong about that. I did honestly believe you would get in just fine, and actually you would have if there hadn’t been an unexpected increase in applications this year. I was being a little selfish in that I didn’t want to call my ex-husband. We had a rather messy divorce, and it’s painful to speak to him.”

“Oh. I didn’t know,” Amy muttered.

“Well, he owes me, so he’s going to write a letter of recommendation for you. A letter from a tenured professor should be enough to get you changed from wait list to accepted. Just give them a few weeks to send out the letter, okay?”

Amy nodded. Then she got out of the car without another word because they were at the school. If Ellen was to be believed, Amy was going to Harvard. The only person who had ever really put her first had done it again. Amy wasn’t used to this level of love from anyone. Not her mother. Not her father—not that she ever even saw him. Not anyone at school. Just that one librarian who had seen a crying little girl and offered her a book to cheer her up.

 

The letter from Harvard did come congratulating Amy. It was thick and heavy like the others from the other schools, and Amy was gleeful as she filled out the forms and sent off her check to tell them that yes, she was going to go to Harvard. Her mother didn’t speak to her for a week after that, but Amy didn’t mind that much. Ellen was always willing to listen to Amy gush about how excited she was.

And when graduation came, Amy walked across that stage proudly with one lone voice from the audience screaming her heart out for the girl. Amy smiled to Ellen as she held up her diploma to show her. Amy had made it through high school. Now, on to the next great adventure, and Amy knew that Ellen Peterson would always be there for her.


End file.
